This is Poolside Chat where every week we answer your questions on how to fix and maintain your swimming pool. Poolside Chat is presented by INYOPools.com, helping pool owners find the right parts since 2001. In today’s episode of Poolside Chat, Rob and Matt tackle another common swimming pool question:

What should I use to cover my above ground pool when it is closed during the winter months?

Now here’s your hosts – Matt and Rob.

Poolside Chat Episode #15 Video

Well Tom, you don’t want to use a solar blanket. Just because leaves, and snow, and debris will just pile up on top and it will fall into your pool and you’ll have a huge mess. So there’s no point in having a cover.

You’ll want to use an above ground swimming pool winter cover because it has grommets around the edges and a cable and wench to tighten it down. Also, what I would recommend is using a leaf net on top of that winter cover. After the fall, once all the leaves have fallen, you remove that leaf net and you’ve still got your winter cover in place.

The leaf net is really important because you don’t want those leaves or pines nuts, or whatever’s falling on your cover to just sit there for the rest of time, because they’re just going to molt; decompose and just eat away at your winter cover.

Also, we get this question a lot, “Can I just use a leaf cover on top of my pool instead of actually just putting a winter cover on it?” What you would be doing is, all the leaves fall and then you just make one large tea bag of everything that’s fallen into that pool because it’s clear. So it’s just going to sink into your pool and make the water all ruddy.

If you have any more questions about above ground swimming pool covers, you can always contact us at 877-372-6038 or visit us online at www.INYOpools.com. You can e-mail us at upload@inyopools.com, also subscribe to this video and to our newsletter where you can also get a free pool maintenance guide, 128 pages that’s what they tell me.